Connections: An alternative theme?

The pieces of literature introduced to us over the course of this term in english 101 were to have a common theme. That theme was meant to involve or incorporate Vancouver into each of the stories. This incorporation could have been through the authors background, the setting of the novel, etc. The further along the course has gone; another theme seems to have arisen. The theme of time. The relativity and importance of time incorporated throughout the literature in this course has been consistent. Vancouver Short Stories, for the most part, connected us with our past. A tunnel through time was created to give us a better perspective of our past and the origins of our culture. Innocent Traveller by Ethel Wilson tells us a story about a young girl, Topaz and her trials and tribulations through life. However, time can be argued to have stood still for her. There are no significant changes, she is essentially the same women throughout the book. Margaret Avison’s collection of poetry in Always Now has some vague references to time, but I will leave it to another blog to determine whether or not this is a work of fiction or not. Moving on, Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus! is broken into four parts. Each part has its own view upon a certain event in time. The focal point of the book has seemed to be frozen in time, with the different views revolving around it. When one combines the outlook of the main characters, their views don’t fit together. They’re perception of time seems fragmented. The book does not flow in a timeline as many novels have. Each new chapter throws you into a new time period. Finally, Gibsons, All Tomorrow’s Parties, is set in a distant time from now. This perception of what life could be like is created in a place where time doesn’t exist. Gibson, being a normal human being, is unable to predict the future. He must use his imagination, where time is irrelevant, to create this place.

All Tomorrow's Parties: Authenticity or Authentic Fakes?

An interesting topic in Gibson’s All Tomorrow’s Parties is the value or worthlessness of authentic objects. Nothing in this world is different from what is next to it, making the best available more important that originality. I believe that this concept is evident in how we look at computers today. All computers are generally the same whether one looks at their structural properties or their software. Originality no longer has anything to do with how valuable they are; the only thing that makes one more desirable than the other is how good (functional) they are. In All Tomorrow’s Parties Fontaine worships originals while Carson is infatuated with fakes that look identical to the original. I believe that Fontaine displays an older attitude style which idealizes originals because of their rarity. Today scarcity makes something much more valuable, but Gibson displays that in the future he sees, people will no longer value things for their originality. Chevette described Carson as caring “deeply about this absolutely authentic fake stuff” (171). It’s likely that this “authentic fake stuff” is very widely dispersed and therefore is not valuable because of its scarcity/originality.